This is the fourth in a series of articles analysing the characteristics and international trading activities of Australia's importers, based on the Australian Business Number (ABN). Australia's Exporters, 2003-04 was released on the ABS web site, concurrently with the October 2004 issue of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (Cat. no. 5368.0), on 10 December 2003.

Estimates for importers of merchandise (businesses that import goods) are compiled from data sourced from the Australian Customs Service (Customs) and from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Australian Business Register. Estimates for importers of services, compiled from the ABS Survey of International Trade in Services are also included.

The estimates are subject to limitations in terms of the data available and methodology applied:

a. consistent with previous studies, businesses which imported goods totalling less than $10,000 in 2003-04 are excluded from the estimates of number of importers; b. service importers include businesses which receive services from off-shore businesses to their operations in Australia, i.e. supply modes 1 and 4 in the classification used by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, smaller and / or occasional service importers are unlikely to come to ABS notice and are therefore not included in the estimates. The number of excluded businesses may be significant, but the value of their imports is not thought to be appreciable in the totality of service imports. The ABS continues to try to identify these businesses and incorporate them into its surveys; c. service importers exclude businesses that only supply goods or services to Australian residents while they are overseas (supply mode 2), such as hotels, restaurants, retail, tourist facilities, transport, theatres, educational institutions, etc. They also exclude Australian-owned businesses located overseas receiving goods or services in the country in which they are located (usually called foreign affiliates trade - supply mode 3), because their trade does not directly contribute to Australia's imports of goods and services; d. Australian businesses which receive goods or services from other businesses which undertake the importing function are excluded. For example, many products are imported into Australia by wholesalers who on-sell to the end consumer.

As the analysis has been undertaken on imports data extracted from earlier publication cycles, the value of imports of goods and services shown in the tables in this article are not necessarily consistent with those shown in the November 2004 issue of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (Cat. no. 5368.0). In addition, the value of goods imports is on a merchandise trade basis, while the value of service imports is on a balance of payments basis. This has no effect on the estimates of the number of importers and minimal effect on the analysis of import values.

NUMBER OF IMPORTERS

The number of importers in 2003-04 as shown in Table F1 was estimated to be 61,632 an increase of 3,109 from the estimate of the number of importers in 2002-03. In the same period, the total value of imports of goods and services fell by $767m to $165.3b.

The number of goods importers was estimated to be 60,661 in 2003-04, an increase of 3,328 (6%). The increase was mostly in importers in the $10,000 and less than $100,000 category, up by 2,209 (7%). The number of service importers fell by 91 to 2,150. Of the businesses engaged in service imports, 1,179 (55%) were also goods importers. Adjusting for the duplication, the total number of importers was derived at 61,632.

TABLE F1: IMPORTERS

Importers

Value of imports

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2003-04

no.

no.

no.

$m

$m

$m

%

Goods importers

$100m or more

163

182

178

56,309

66,691

64,963

49.6

$1m and less than $100m

8,029

8,442

8,493

56,325

58,985

58,188

44.4

$100,000 and less than $1m

16,864

17,821

18,893

5,765

6,137

6,424

4.9

$10,000 and less than $100,000

29,329

30,888

33,097

1,058

1,113

1,196

0.9

Other goods importers

na

na

na

193

204

231

0.2

Total goods importers

54,385

57,333

60,661

119,649

133,130

131,002

100.0

Services importers

Businesses importing services(a)

$100m or more

na

29

23

na

7,486

7,305

21.3

$1m and less than $100m

na

782

763

na

6,101

6,201

18.1

Less than $1m

na

1,430

1,364

na

359

337

1.0

Total

2,300

2,241

2,150

13,970

13,946

13,843

40.4

Freight Services(b)

na

na

na

5,626

5,808

6,056

17.7

Other service importers(c)

na

na

na

13,035

13,137

14,353

41.9

Total service importers

2,300

2,241

2,150

32,631

32,891

34,252

100.0

Total importers(d)

55,355

58,523

61,632

152,280

166,021

165,254

. .

. . not applicable

na not available

(a) Excludes services to Australian travellers overseas. See exclusions in the introduction to this article.

(b) No estimate has been made for the number of importers of freight services, as the Survey of International Trade in Services is not used to measure these imports.

(c) Includes travel, insurance, financial and government services. Numbers of importers cannot be estimated for these service types, as the Survey of International Trade in Services is not used to measure these imports.

(d) The total number of importers excludes duplication from businesses which import both goods and services.

GOODS IMPORTERS

Value of Imports

As shown in Table F1, the 178 largest goods importers, each with imports worth $100m or more, accounted for half ($65b) of Australia's goods imports in 2003-04. There were 8,671 businesses that imported goods worth $1m or more, together accounting for $123b (94%) of goods imports.

Another 18,893 businesses imported goods valued between $100,000 and $1m, accounting for $6.4b (5%) of goods imports in 2003-04. Over half (33,097) of Australia's goods importers had imports valued between $10,000 and $100,000 during 2003-04, accounting for $1.2b (1%) of goods imports in that period.

Industry

Most goods imports were by the wholesale trade (46% by value) and manufacturing (35%) industries, as shown in Table F2. Together these accounted for $106b (81%) of Australia's $131b of goods imports during 2003-04. The next most significant industry was retail trade with $7.6b (6%) of goods imports.

Imports by machinery and equipment manufacturers, and machinery and motor vehicle wholesalers, together accounted for over $50b (39%) of Australia's total goods imports.

Table F2: IMPORTS OF GOODS, Industry of importer - 2003-04

Importers(a)

Value of goods imports

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2003-04

Industry of importer

no.

no.

no.

$m

$m

$m

%

Agriculture, forestry and fishing

928

977

1,134

455

491

488

0.4

Mining

282

303

336

4,407

5,237

5,132

3.9

Manufacturing

Food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing

761

828

817

2,833

3,193

2,875

2.2

Textile, clothing, footwear and leather manufacturing

1,246

1,273

1,282

1,968

2,007

1,838

1.4

Wood and paper product manufacturing

428

458

486

1,256

1,448

1,536

1.2

Printing, publishing and recorded media

673

698

770

1,269

1,325

1,334

1.0

Petroleum, coal, chemical and associated product manufacturing

1,204

1,261

1,301

12,485

16,016

12,247

9.3

Non-metallic mineral product manufacturing

375

409

428

357

389

405

0.3

Metal product manufacturing

1,105

1,194

1,232

4,263

4,659

4,481

3.4

Machinery and equipment manufacturing

3,201

3,303

3,419

17,906

17,865

17,457

13.3

Other manufacturing

1,120

1,188

1,262

1,226

1,176

1,149

0.9

Total

10,113

10,612

10,997

43,563

48,078

45,322

34.6

Electricity, gas and water supply

104

111

129

132

109

77

0.1

Construction

1,232

1,560

1,733

1,061

1,227

1,212

0.9

Wholesale trade

Basic material wholesaling

2,126

2,467

2,800

8,097

6,850

8,043

6.1

Machinery and motor vehicle wholesaling

5,099

5,439

5,883

28,292

31,959

33,048

25.2

Personal and household good wholesaling

8,602

9,057

9,725

18,299

19,802

19,596

15.0

Total

15,827

16,963

18,408

54,687

58,610

60,687

46.3

Retail trade

Food retailing

373

460

515

468

540

619

0.5

Personal and household good retailing

5,734

6,368

6,914

5,560

6,037

6,018

4.6

Motor vehicle retailing and services

896

961

1,045

886

1,000

984

0.8

Total

7,003

7,789

8,474

6,914

7,577

7,621

5.8

Accommodation, cafes and restaurants

230

279

307

42

185

196

0.1

Transport and storage

717

744

807

2,943

5,864

4,526

3.5

Communication services

252

275

320

371

367

410

0.3

Finance and insurance

933

985

1,102

1,344

1,311

983

0.8

Property and business services

3,409

3,948

4,393

1,876

2,053

2,478

1.9

Government administration and defence

176

173

201

np

np

np

np

Education

173

209

199

50

np

np

np

Health and community services

386

396

453

171

125

129

0.1

Cultural and recreational services

619

694

774

207

264

326

0.2

Personal and other services

509

608

693

184

208

255

0.2

Other

54

130

17

np

np

np

np

Industry not known

11,438

10,557

10,184

(b). .

(b). .

(b). .

(b). .

All industries

54,385

57,313

60,661

119,649

133,130

131,002

100.0

. . not applicable

np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated

(a) Includes only those businesses that imported at least $10,000 of goods.

(b) The value of imports with 'Industry not known' has been prorated across industries that imported the same commodities.

Size of Business

Two different size measures are used for goods importers in this article. They are the value of imports (see Table F1) and size of business (Table F3). Traditionally, the ABS has only used employment to determine the size of a business because this has been the only sizing variable generally available. Many significant importers were found not to have large employment.

For the purpose of this analysis, size of business has been defined in terms of three variables - employment, estimated annual turnover (both from the Australian Business Register) and value of imports (from Customs):

small businesses - having fewer than 20 employees and estimated annual turnover less than $1m and imports of less than $1m during 2003-04;

large businesses - having 200 or more employees or estimated annual turnover of $20m or more or imports of $20m or more during 2003-04; and

medium businesses - all businesses other than those defined as small or large.

There were 4,532 large goods importers in 2003-04, accounting for $107b (82%) of goods imports. The 20,822 medium sized importers accounted for $21b (16%) of goods imports. They were most prevalent in the manufacturing and wholesale trade industries, accounting for 52% and 45% of importers in those industries. Fifty-eight percent (35,307) of Australia's goods importers were small businesses. They contributed $2.5b (2%) of goods imports.

TABLE F3a: IMPORTS OF GOODS, Size of business by Industry of Importer - 2003-04

Number of importers(a)

Large

Medium

Small

Total(b)

Large

Medium

Small

Total

Industry of exporter

no.

no.

no.

no.

%

%

%

%

Mining

117

121

98

336

34.8

36.0

29.2

100.0

Manufacturing

1,431

5,654

3,912

10,997

13.0

51.4

35.6

100.0

Wholesale trade

1,230

8,241

8,937

18,408

6.7

44.8

48.5

100.0

Retail Trade

370

2,626

5,478

8,474

4.4

31.0

64.6

100.0

Transport and storage

178

300

329

807

22.1

37.2

40.8

100.0

Finance and insurance

135

273

694

1,102

12.3

24.8

63.0

100.0

Property and business services

291

1,468

2,634

4,393

6.6

33.4

60.0

100.0

Other

780

2,026

3,154

5,960

13.1

34.0

52.9

100.0

Industry not known

-

113

10,071

10,184

13.1

34.0

52.9

100.0

Total goods importers

4,532

20,822

35,307

60,661

7.5

34.3

58.2

100.0

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

(a) Includes only those businesses that imported at least $10,000 of goods.

(b) Importers who did not report an ABN have been allocated as size of business based only on their imports: large business if imports valued at $20m or more, medium business if imports valued between $1m and $20m, small business if imports valued at less than $1m.

TABLE F3b: IMPORTS OF GOODS, Size of Business - By Industry of Importer - 2003-04

Value of Goods Imports

Large

Medium

Small

Total

Large

Medium

Small

Total

Industry of importer

$m

$m

$m

$m

%

%

%

%

Mining

4,992

131

10

5,133

97.3

2.6

0.2

100.0

Manufacturing

40,334

4,627

360

45,321

89.0

10.2

0.8

100.0

Wholesale trade

47,408

12,222

1,057

60,687

78.1

20.1

1.7

100.0

Retail Trade

5,284

1,871

466

7,621

69.3

24.6

6.1

100.0

Transport and storage

4,298

199

29

4,526

95.0

4.4

0.6

100.0

Finance and insurance

655

263

65

983

66.6

26.8

6.6

100.0

Property and business services

1,315

939

225

2,479

53.0

37.9

9.1

100.0

Other

3,044

958

250

4,252

71.6

22.5

5.9

100.0

Industry not known(a)

. .

. .

. .

. .

. .

. .

. .

. .

Total goods importers

107,330

21,210

2,462

131,002

81.9

16.2

1.9

100.0

. . not applicable

(a) The value of imports with 'Industry not known' were prorated across industries that imported the same commodities.

State of destination

New South Wales and Victoria were the state of destination of almost three quarters of Australia's goods imports in 2003-04, as shown in Table F4. These two States accounted for 79% ($48.2b) of imports by the wholesaling and 65% ($29.4b) of imports by the manufacturing industry.

TABLE F4: IMPORTS OF GOODS, Industry of Importer by State of Destination of Commodity - 2003-04

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Other

Total goods imports

Industry of importer

$m

$m

$m

$m

$m

$m

$m

$m

Mining

np

np

1,180

41

778

15

np

5,133

Manufacturing

15,615

13,802

6,970

2,736

5,740

385

73

45,321

Wholesale trade

29,159

19,052

6,677

1,793

3,899

53

54

60,687

Retail trade

3,316

2,391

1,154

247

491

12

9

7,621

Finance and insurance

353

295

110

37

173

3

11

983

Property and business services

np

np

347

90

177

1

np

2,479

Other

3,229

2,914

1,597

222

436

203

178

8,778

Total goods imports

53,777

40,751

18,036

5,167

11,694

672

905

131,002

np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated

GOODS EXPORTERS AND IMPORTERS

Table F5 shows that of the 60,661 businesses with goods imports worth $10,000 or more during 2003-04, 12,702 (21%) also exported goods valued at $10,000 or more. Of the 8,671 businesses with goods imports of $1m or more, 17% (1,481) also exported goods valued at $1m or more in 2003-04. Businesses with imports valued between $10,000 and $100,000 were the least likely to have also exported goods with only 9% (3,000) of these exported goods worth $10,000 or more in 2003-04.

F5: Goods Exporters and Importers - 2003-04

Value of goods imports

$100m or more

$1m and less than $100m

$100,000 and less than $1m

$10,000 and less than $100,000

Other(a)

Total goods exporters

Value of goods exports

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

$100m or more

24

46

15

8

99

192

$1m and less than $100m

101

1,310

520

315

1,690

3,936

$100,000 and less than $1m

17

1,949

1,555

949

4,891

9,361

$10,000 and less than $100,000

10

1,644

2,511

1,728

10,173

16,066

Other(b)

26

3,544

14,292

30,097

na

na

Total goods importers

178

8,493

18,893

33,097

na

(c). .

. . not applicable

na not available

(a) Includes businesses whose imports are not known or valued at less than $10,000.

(b) Includes businesses whose exports are not known or valued at less than $10,000.

(c) Total goods exporters were 29,555 and total goods importers were 60,661.

SERVICE IMPORTERS

Value of Imports

As shown in Table F1, businesses importing services were dominated by a small number of importers, with just 23 businesses accounting for 21% ($7.3b) of Australia's total service imports in 2003-04. There were 763 (35%) service importers with imports between $1m and $100m, accounting for 18% of total service imports. Almost two-thirds (1,364) of identified importers of services had imports worth less than $1m in 2003-04.

Imports of services includes the value of freight services on imports provided by non-residents. Goods importers are also therefore importers of freight services. However, it is not considered analytically useful to include in the count of importers of services those businesses whose only service imports are freight services associated with the importation of goods.

The value of freight attributable to these importers is shown separately in Table F1. Previously, this was allocated to the size of business based on the value of goods imported. The estimates for 2001-02 and 2002-03 have been amended to reflect this change in approach. The businesses are included in the count of goods importers, but are not included in the count of services importers.

Service Type

The service types with the highest numbers of importers in 2003-04 were other business services (1,825), royalties and licence fees (1,323) and communication services (1,287), as shown in Table F6. Transportation services had the highest value of imports per business, averaging $179m per importer in 2003-04.

Table F6: Imports of Services, Type of Service - 2003-04

Importers(a)

Total service imports

Total service imports

Average service imports per business

Type of service

no.

$m

%

$m

Transportation services

65

11,634

34.0

179

Travel services

(b). .

12,136

35.4

(b). .

Communication services

1,287

879

2.6

1

Insurance services

(b). .

874

2.6

(b). .

Financial services

(b). .

587

1.7

(b). .

Computer and information services

952

1,009

2.9

1

Royalties and licence fees

1,323

1,988

5.8

2

Other business services

1,825

3,515

10.3

2

Personal, cultural and recreational services

637

874

2.6

1

Government services n.i.e.

(b). .

756

2.2

(b). .

Total service importers

2,151

34,252

100.0

. .

. . not applicable

(a) Businesses may import more than one type of service.

(b) Number of importers cannot be estimated as the Survey of International Trade in Services is not used to measure imports of this service type.

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